ECI Reports Q4 Revenues, CFO Steps Aside

ECI Telecom reported Q4 2006 revenues of $154 million, compared with $169 million recorded in the fourth quarter of 2005 and $170 million recorded in the third quarter of 2006. For the entire year 2006 revenues grew 4% compared with 2005 to reach $656 million. Net income (GAAP) for Q4 was $2.3 million, or $0.02 per share on a fully diluted basis, compared with fourth quarter 2005 net income of $7.6 million, or $0.06 per diluted share. Some highlights:

• Revenues for the Optical Networks Division continued to rise for the 14th consecutive quarter, totaling $103 million for Q4, up from $88 million in the comparable quarter last year and $101 million the third quarter of 2006. The company cited strong demand in emerging markets, primarily for cellular backhaul solutions.



• Revenues for the Broadband Access Division totaled $40 million for Q4, down from $68 million in the comparable quarter last year and, as anticipated, down from $57 million in the third quarter of 2006. The sequential decline in revenues was attributed to lower revenues from one of the Division's principal customers. For the year, the Division's sales totaled $225 million, compared with $262 in 2005.


• Revenues for the Data Networking Division (formerly Laurel Networks) were $2.5 million for Q4, up from $1.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2005 and compared with $3.7 million in the third quarter of 2006. On a GAAP basis, the operating loss for the Division totaled $11.2 million, while the pro forma, non GAAP operating loss was $7.3 million, reflecting continued high R&D spending.


• In January, Veraz Networks filed a second amendment to its S-1 Registration Statement with the SEC as part of its proposed initial public offering. ECI, which holds 33% of Veraz.


• For 2007, ECI expects its revenues to increase in a range of 4-8% compared with 2006 and net income to grow faster than revenues.


• ECI's Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Giora Bitan, has decided to step down as CFO in order to resume his venture capital career. ECI has launched an external search to find Bitan's successor.

"Our Optical Networks Division completed another year of exceptional growth and increased market share. Our optical business grew 17% year over year, higher than industry average. Over the past few years, ECI has established itself as a leading provider of innovative optical transport solutions, primarily in emerging markets, where a significant increase in cellular subscribers creates a strong demand for our cellular backhaul solutions. A point in case is our success in India where our revenues more than quadrupled in 2 years from $24 million to over $100 million in 2006. At the same time, the Division also continues to benefit from further deployment of 3G networks by its European customers."
"The growth of our optical business was offset, in the second half of 2006, by the slowdown in our broadband access business. As we previously indicated, sales of our Broadband Access Division declined in the third and fourth quarters due to weaker demand from the Division's two principal customers, but we expect them to gradually recover during 2007, starting already in the 1st quarter. Our two principal broadband customers are in the process of transforming their networks to support advanced triple play services; however, for regulatory and other reasons, deployment is slower than originally anticipated. Despite this slowdown, we expect to continue to play a major role in the build out of these customers' next generation broadband networks," stated Rafi Maor, ECI's President and CEO.

http://www.ecitele.com

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Occam Posts Q4 Revenue of $20 Million, Reaches 200 Customers

Occam Networks reported Q4 2006 revenue of $20.1 million, an increase of 56% over the fourth quarter of 2005 and 11% sequentially over the third quarter of 2006. Annual revenue for 2006 was $68.6 million, representing a 75% increase over annual revenue for 2005. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2006 (GAAP) was $0.9 million or $0.04 per diluted share compared with net income of $0.4 million or $0.03 per diluted share for the fourth quarter of 2005 and net income of $0.2 million or $0.01 per diluted share for the third quarter of 2006.



The company also finished the fiscal year by surpassing one million ports shipped. Occam said its fiscal year end results reflect increasing interest among telecommunications service providers in upgrading their networks to offer IPTV, Triple Play and other new, innovative services. The company has now surpassed the 200 customer mark. http://www.occamnetworks.com

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Canada's Videotron Tests Cisco's WideBand for 100 Mbps Cable Access

Videotron, which serves 1,553,000 cable television customers in Québec, will begin testing a cable wideband solution that delivers Internet speeds up to 100 Mbps, which is five times faster than its current Extreme Plus high speed Internet service.



In a joint announcement with Cisco, Videotron reported that its pilot implementation has now been running for more than a month. The companies are projecting they will reach the 100 Mbps objective in the next few months.



"This alliance enables us to stand far ahead of the competition with regards to delivery of Internet services, not only in Quebec, but across Canada. We are committed to offering Internet users the fastest and highest performance network on the market, and today, we are announcing that the technological breakthrough is attainable in the near future," said Robert Dépatie, Videotron President and CEO.

http://www.cisco.com

http://www.videotron.com

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Qwest Opens Data Center in Seattle

Qwest Communications opened a new CyberCenter in the Seattle area -- bringing to 14 the number of such facilities it operates nationwide. Services include collocation, operating systems, application and database monitoring and management, storage management and business protection.

http://www.qwest.com

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FCC Commissioners Testify before Democratically-controlled Senate Committee

All five FCC Commissioners were called to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee, their first such appearance since the Democrats regained control of Congress. Top issues included the recent acquisition of BellSouth by AT&T, the Universal Service Fund (USF), rural broadband deployment and the Digital Divide.



Questions posed by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, a Democrat from Hawaii, challenged FCC Chairman Martin on whether he would enforce all of the conditions agreed to in the AT&T+BellSouth merger approval. Martin said he stood by his vote, but that this deal could not be used to change FCC policy or commission rules or regulations affecting other companies. In particular, Martin said that AT&T had volunteered to abide by several Net Neutrality principles, and that the FCC would enforce these conditions. However, Martin said these did not change FCC policy overall.



A subsequent appearance by the FCC Commissioners before the House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled for later this month.



Some highlights of the opening testimony from the FCC Commissioners:

• Kevin Martin (Chairman): "I am pleased to report that the state of the communications industry is strong. As you no doubt remember, in the year 2000, the communications industry began a precipitous and far-reaching decline. Capital spending by companies followed this market decline, innovation disappeared and companies went out of business taking jobs with them. What a difference six years make. In 2006, the communications industry experienced record growth and, by most measures, almost all sectors have rebounded remarkably. In 2006, the S&P 500 telecommunications sector was the strongest performing sector, up 32% over the previous year."





• Michael Copps: "I hope this Congress will push the FCC to be a more proactive participant in developing a strategy and developing solutions. Have us gather better statistics about our country's woeful broadband situation. Set our agency's talented engineers and policy gurus to work writing reports and teeing up options for you to consider about how we can inject life back into our nation's stagnant broadband market."





• Jonathan Adelstein: "I am concerned that the U.S. is not keeping pace with our global competitors.  Each year we slip further down the regular rankings of broadband penetration.  This is more than a public relations problem.  Citizens of other countries are simply getting more megabits for less money."

http://www.fcc.gov

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Sea Launch Updates Platform Status Following Jan. 30 Failure

Following the unsuccessful launch of the NSS-8 spacecraft from its Odyssey Platform in the equatorial Pacific on January 30, Sea Launch issued a preliminary assessment. The Odyssey Launch Platform has sustained limited damage. The integrity and functionality of essential marine, communications and crew support systems remains intact. The vessel is operating on its own power and is currently manned by the full marine crew. The Commander ship was not damaged during the launch attempt, as it was positioned four miles from the Launch Platform at the time of lift-off.



The Sea Launch partners will be conducting an independent investigation to review relevant data, determine root cause, and develop recommendations for corrective actions. In accordance with established procedures, Sea Launch is establishing a Failure Review Oversight Board (FROB) to review the partners' findings, conclusions and recommendations.

http://www.sea-launch.com

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Microsoft Gains Partners for its Network Access Protection

Microsoft said it now has more than 100 networking and security partners for its Network Access Protection (NAP), a policy enforcement platform built into the Windows Vista operating system and the upcoming version of Windows Server, code-named "Longhorn".



NAP is designed to allow IT administrators to better protect network assets by enforcing compliance with system health requirements. Users can create customized policies to validate computer health before allowing access or communication, automatically update compliant computers to help ensure that compliance is ongoing, and optionally confine noncompliant computers to a restricted network until they become compliant.

http://www.microsoft.com

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Comcast Triple Play Powers Record Results

Comcast credited its Triple Play bundles for strong results in Q4 2006, as the company added more revenue generating units (RGUs) than at any other time in its history and reported growth in cable revenue and operating cash flow. Some highlights from the quarter:

• Comcast Cable reported revenue of $6.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2006, an increase of 14% from the prior year. For all of 2006, cable revenue increased 12% to $26.3 billion.



• Video revenue increased 9% reflecting growth in both basic and digital cable customers and increased demand for advanced digital features, such as DVR and HDTV.



• Comcast Cable added 613,000 digital cable subscribers and 110,000 basic cable subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2006, each representing the highest quarterly additions in more than 10 years.



• Driven by increasing ON DEMAND movie purchases, pay-per-view revenue increased 24% to $159 million in 2006. Pay- per-view revenue has increased more than 20% on average for the past eight quarters.



• High-speed Internet revenues increased 23% in the quarter to $1.5 billion. Comcast added 488,000 high-speed Internet subscribers, a 12% increase from the same period last year and relatively stable monthly revenue per subscriber.



• Cable phone revenue increased 77% in the fourth quarter of 2006 to $302 million reflecting the addition of 508,000 CDV customers offset by the decline of 87,000 circuit-switched customers during the quarter.



• Revenue generating units (RGUs) for 2006 increased 69%, or a record 5.0 million from prior year net additions of 3.0 million, to end the year at 50.8 million RGUs.



• Comcast Cable capital expenditures of $1.4 billion for the quarter were 43% higher than the fourth quarter of 2005 driven by the record RGU additions during the period. Comcast added 77% more RGUs in the fourth quarter of 2006 than 2005.



• Comcast's Board of Directors authorized a 3-for-2 stock split - the 11th stock split in our company's history.



• For 2007, Comcast is forecasting cable revenue growth of at least 12%, and cable RGU net additions of approximately 6.5 million, 30% above 2006 RGU net additions of 5 million. Cable capital expenditures are expected to be approximately $5.7 billion.
• 
  

http://www.comcast.com

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BT to Acquire INS, Expanding its Role in Global IT Consulting

BT announced plans to acquire International Network Services Inc. (INS), a leading global provider of IT consulting and software solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

img border="0" src="https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11402824/CND/v14n022-bt.jpg" align="right">

INS specializes in four major areas -- Enterprise Architecture and Governance, Business Productivity, Information Risk Management, and Infrastructure Transformation. Based in Santa Clara, California, with offices in Europe, Asia and throughout North America, the company builds, implements and secures business technology infrastructures for its customers.



BT said the acquisition adds to its global professional services resources of more than 7,000 people across the globe. The move will see hundreds of consultants join BT, mostly in the U.S. and Canada.



"The INS business is another great services acquisition for us. INS has a proven business model in the Networked IT Services space that we will replicate around the world. At the same time it significantly boosts our ability to supply world class professional services to US-headquartered corporations and increases BT's presence in the key North American market, said Andy Green, chief executive officer of BT Global Services.

http://www.btplc.com

http://www.ins.com

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Verizon to Hire More Staff to Support Fiber Rollout

Verizon is seeking to hire 100 new consumer sales consultants to handle consumer demand for both Verizon DSL and FiOS Internet and TV service in the Tampa Bay region of Florida. The company also plans to train over 400 additional fiber technicians for the region to add to the strength of the Verizon network and customer support teams.

http://www.verizon.com

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Ikanos Supplies VDSL2 to Leading Korean Vendors

Korean VDSL equipment manufacturers Millinet Co., Ltd. and Ubiquoss Corp. have selected the Ikanos multi-mode VDSL2 central office (CO) and customer premises equipment (CPE) chipsets. This enables Millinet and Ubiquoss to offer products capable of symmetrical speeds of up to 100 Mbps that support infrastructure upgrades to VDSL2 now underway in Korea.



Ikanos said its FxTM100100-5 VDSL2 CO and FxTM100100S-5 VDSL2 CPE chipsets offer the lowest power consumption per port in the industry. The multi-mode VDSL2 chipsets -- which are optimized for IPTV and triple play offerings -- also are backwards compatible with VDSL1 solutions currently in use in Korea.

http://www.ikanos.com

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Verizon Wireless Launches EV-DO Rev-A

Verizon Wireless is launching its CDMA 1x Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Revision A (Rev. A) service. The upgrade is available initially in Mass., including Boston and its suburbs, the Richmond and Hampton Roads, Va. areas, Chicago and its suburbs and including Gary, Ind., Salt Lake City and other cities in Utah, as well as in Florida throughout the state's entire existing area of Verizon Wireless' wireless broadband network.



Verizon Wireless said customers with the EVDO Rev. A service should expect average download speeds of 450-800 kbps and average upload speeds of 300-400 kbps.



Verizon Wireless also announced a new compact USB720 wireless modem with a USB interface, enabling Rev. A connectivity for laptops and desktops. The USB720 from Novatel Wireless joins the AirCard 595 PC Card from Verizon Wireless as the first two enhanced wireless broadband network devices from Verizon Wireless. The USB720 is $149.99 with a new two-year customer agreement or $199.99 with a new one-year customer agreement.

http://www.verizonwireless.com

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AudioCodes Acquires CTI Squared Ltd.

AudioCodes will acquire CTI Squared Ltd. ("CTI2"), a provider of enhanced messaging and communications platforms deployed globally by service providers and enterprises. CTI2's platforms integrate data and voice messaging services over Internet, intranet, PSTN, cellular, cable and enterprise networks. It employs approximately 30 people and they are based in Israel.



"This acquisition further strengthens our strategic initiative to become a key supplier of Converged IP Communication products and solutions to Service Providers worldwide," said Shabtai Adlersberg, Chairman, President and CEO of AudioCodes.



In November of 2006, AudioCodes and CTI2 announced that FASTWEB, Italy's second largest fixed telephony operator, is expanding its use of CTI2's InTouch platform, integrated with AudioCodes IPmedia Media Server, for advanced voicemail and unified messaging services.



In February of 2006, AudioCodes acquired 10% of the outstanding shares of CTI2 for a purchase price of $1 million, which was paid in cash. AudioCodes intends to exercise the option it also obtained to acquire the remaining shares of CTI2 for a total purchase price of $10 million, $5 million in cash payable by February 28, 2007 and $5 million in cash payable by February 28, 2008. The second installment payment may be reduced by certain claims against CTI2 arising prior to the second payment.

http://www.audiocodes.com

http://www.cti2.com

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JDSU Posts Strongest Results in 5 Years

JDSU reported quarterly revenue of $366.3 million and GAAP net income was $23.2 million, or $0.10 per diluted share. This compares to net revenue of $318.1 million and GAAP net loss of $(17.4) million, or $(0.08) per share, reported for the preceding quarter, and to net revenue of $312.9 million and a GAAP net loss of $(42.1) million, or $(0.20) per share, for the same period a year earlier.



"During the second quarter, JDSU delivered the strongest revenue, gross margin, and net income results in more than five years," said Kevin Kennedy, JDSU's Chief Executive Officer. "Positive earnings per share results show marked improvement from previous quarters, highlighting the impact of our strategy to diversify our business and return to profitability, while continuing to deliver highly innovative products to market."



Some highlights:

• Communications Test and Measurement net revenue of $168.2 million was up 44% from last quarter, and up 15% from the same quarter a year ago. This segment represented 46% of total revenue.



• Optical Communications net revenue of $132.7 million was down 4% from last quarter, and up 21% from the same quarter a year ago, representing 36% of total net revenue.



• Advanced Optical Technologies net revenue of $40.4 million was up 3% from last quarter, and down 2% from the same quarter a year ago. This segment represented 11% of total net revenue.

http://www.jdsu.com

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Cisco Expands Catalyst Switch Portfolio

Cisco has expanded its Catalyst switching portfolio with new models aimed at campus networks. The rollout includes:

• Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E Series Switches: Enterprise-class line of 10/100/1000 wiring closet switches with 10 Gigabit Ethernet uplinks and full Power over Ethernet (PoE) configurations.



• Cisco Catalyst 3560 and Catalyst 2960 Compact Switches: Small form-factor switches with Gigabit Ethernet and Fast Ethernet and PoE configurations designed for meeting rooms, classrooms and other wiring and space-constrained environments.



• Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series 8700W Enhanced AC Power Supply: Helps enable greater PoE density with full redundancy across all chassis ports.



• Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Full Image In-Service Software Upgrade (ISSU): Helps ensure business continuity by enabling a full Cisco IOS Software upgrade without downtime.



• Cisco Redundant Power System (RPS) 2300: A redundant power system that provides users with uninterrupted network services in the event of an internal power-supply failure.

http://www.cisco.com/go/catalyst

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New Skies Loses NSS-8 Satellite in Sea Launch Failure

Sea Launch Zenit-3SL rocket, carrying New Skies' NSS-8 satellite, failed during lauch from the Odyssey Platform in the equatorial Pacific, leading to the total loss of the satellite.
Sea Launch said it was trying to determine the root cause of the lauch failure.



NSS-8 was built by Boeing. The spacecraft was intended to operate at SES NEW SKIES orbital position of 57° East to replace the existing NSS-703 satellite. New Skies said the launch failure of NSS-8 means that NSS-703 will now stay at 57° East in order to continue to serve existing customers until at least 2009. The company has already initiated the construction of NSS-9 for launch in 2009 into the Pacific Ocean Region. NSS-9 is intended to free up NSS-5 which in turn will then be available to relocate to 57° to replace NSS-703.

http://www.boeing.com/special/sea-launch/http://www.newskies.comBecause of its launch site on the Equator, the Zenit-3SL rocket can lift a heavier mass or provide longer life on geostationary orbit. The rocket component are manufactured in Ukraine, Russia and the state of Washington. Sea Launch's home port is Long Beach, California.

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Tropos Signs 500th Wireless Mesh Customer

Tropos Networks has reached the 500 customer milestone for its metro-scale wireless mesh network systems. The company said its Q4CY05 to Q4CY06 node shipments grew by more than 120%.



In 2006, Tropos added more than 200 new customers including:
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Rock Hill, South Carolina; Southaven,
Mississippi; Pasadena, California; and Rome, Georgia. The latest customer is Las Vegas, New Mexico.



Tropos expects the vibrant market growth to continue. Citing figures from
Muniwireless, Tropos said the number of planned but not yet deployed municipal Wi-Fi networks grew from 59 in February 2006 to 135 in September 2006. St. Paul, Minnesota; Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; San Antonio, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chicago, Illinois and a host of smaller cities have issued RFPs for the construction of metro-scale
Wi-Fi networks where the winners have yet to be announced. Based on
this information, Tropos expects the metro-scale Wi-Fi market to at
least double in 2007.



Tropos also released network utilization statistics reported by the Tropos Insight analysis and control system, along with subscriber satisfaction surveys. Those statistics reveal that in a 10 to 15 square mile city, Tropos typically sees 20% to 25% household penetration (on par with DSL plus cable broadband penetration), 1,550 steady daily users, and an average of 2,640 users per week. These users generally download, in aggregate, more than 100 GBytes per day. In addition, user surveys show that 70% or more of the respondents typically rate the network service as good to excellent, a percentage that compares favorably to cellular telephony.

http://www.tropos.com

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Deutsche Telekom Sees Increased Competition, Continues VDSL Push

Despite increased competition in its home market, Deutsche Telekom intends to establish itself at the top of the international telecommunications market by focusing on the customer, said company executives at a press event in Berlin. This consumer push includes opening 200 new retail stores and adding 1,500 sales employees. Deutsche Telekom is increasing its focus on the broadband opportunity while de-emphasizing conventional fixed line telephony, where line losses continue.



Deutsche Telekom confirmed that it is continuing the rollout of its new VDSL network in 50 cities. However, the company warned that demand for its T-Home service will develop more slowly than originally anticipated. As a result, Deutsche Telekom anticipates that the adjusted EBITDA of the strategic business area Broadband/Fixed Network will be reduced by EUR 0.8 billion in 2007, compared to the previous internal planning.



In mobile communications, Deutsche Telekom now has over 100 million customers, with the fastest growth occurring at T-Mobile USA, which added over 900,000 subscribers in Q4.

"Service and a service mentality are key components to advance our business, in particular in Germany. Step by step, we intend to make Deutsche Telekom the standard for service in the industry," stated René Obermann, Deutsche Telekom's CEO.




http://www.telekom.de

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UK Ministry of Defence Deploys Juniper Routers

BT will provide routers and security solutions for the U.K.'s Defence Fixed Telecommunications Service (DFTS) project, which connects 240,000 users at over 1,500 sites across the UK and overseas. DFTS has consolidated all existing defense networks to deliver unified voice, data, LAN interconnectivity and WAN services for the Royal Navy, British Army, the Royal Air Force and MoD Centre. The new network is now live, with the first services being delivered in September 2006. Financial terms were not disclosed.



The new network based on Juniper routers, including M-series multiservice routing platforms and J-series service routers. BT has also deployed NetScreen-5200 high-performance integrated firewall/IPSec VPN security systems to provide network protection and defence. The M-series platforms provides the DFTS network with advanced IP/MPLS edge routing, enabling future multiple services--including VPNs, network-based security, real-time voice and video, bandwidth-on-demand, rich multicast and IPv6 services--to be delivered over the single network. The supporting J-series service routers deliver data connectivity to remote and branch offices, and are ready for the rollout of VoIP services as required.

http://www.juniper.net

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Amedia Ships MIPX home gateway for Motorola Trial

Amedia has begun shipments to Motorola for trials of the jointly developed MIPX home gateway. The MIPX product is an IP home gateway intended to provide expanded support for data, IPTV, HD TV, and Digital Video Recorders using Motorola's existing Multi-Service Access Platform for exclusive distribution by Motorola under the Motorola brand. In Q4 2006, Amedia successfully passed the IPTV Gateway System Verification Testing Acceptance Test -- a major engineering milestone in the Strategic Alliance Agreement between the companies. To date, Amedia has shipped over $475,000 worth of equipment to Motorola for use in both Alpha lab testing and Beta field testing programs.

http://www.amedia.com

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Zarlink and Marvell Demo Synchronous Ethernet solution

Zarlink Semiconductor and Marvell have developed a synchronous Ethernet solution for supporting real-time services over packet-based networks.



The companies said network synchronization is a key issue for carriers in the drive towards network convergence. For example, economical cellular backhaul over IP networks requires synchronization to allow legacy applications such as voice and fax to function properly. As high-growth applications such as YouTube and AOL Video gain popularity, these applications need to co-exist alongside critical time-sensitive services on IP backhaul networks. To guarantee performance, carriers must currently operate a number of different networks and deploy costly external mechanisms to ensure synchronization.



Zarlink and Marvell are offering a solution the focuses on "synchronous Ethernet," allowing carriers to support real-time services over asynchronous Ethernet networks. In synchronous Ethernet operation, each piece of network equipment must have synchronized timing capabilities.



To meet this requirement, the companies have successfully completed interoperability testing demonstrating that Zarlink's ZL 30120 analog/digital PLL can synchronize a Marvell 88E1145 Ethernet physical layer device to a telecom networking timing reference, while generating a very low jitter (picoseconds) Ethernet clock. This will enable developers of Ethernet switching and routing platforms to provide complete end-to-end solutions for next-generation IP networks.



An application note on Zarlink-Marvell synchronous Ethernet interoperability testing is available on the company's website.

http://assets.zarlink.com/AN/ZLAN_211_AppNote_Jan07.pdfhttp://timing.zarlink.com/

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PCCW Selects Harmonic for its MPEG-4 AVC (H.264)Service

PCCW, the incumbent operator in Hong Kong and currently the world's largest IPTV operator with 700,000 subscribers, is deploying Harmonic's new DiviCom Electra 5400 standard definition (SD) MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) encoders for its entire "now TV" channel lineup. This expansion enables PCCW to add services and extend its reach in Hong Kong. Harmonic's Electra 5000 MPEG-2 encoders were also recently implemented at PCCW as part of a channel expansion. The implementation at PCCW also includes Harmonic's NMX Digital Service Manager for service operations and scheduling. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Harmonic said the bandwidth improvements available with H.264 also enable PCCW to significantly increase the number of subscribers that can access the service over the DSL network in comparison to MPEG-2.

"By adding H.264-based services to their lineup, PCCW can further enhance the service by lowering bandwidth requirements for TV programming and thus support on-demand services and additional TV sets," said Patrick Harshman, President and CEO of Harmonic Inc.

http://www.harmonicinc.com

http://www.pccw.com

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Convergin Launches IPTV-Ready Service Control and Interaction SCIM Solution

Convergin introduced its Accolade WCS Service Capability Interaction Management (SCIM) product for integrating IPTV and telecom services into converged networks.



As a SCIM platform, the Accolade WCS coordinates and unifies the orchestration and interaction of services from various application servers. With its new IPTV capabilities, Accolade WCS now extends the service orchestration to incorporate headend servers alongside SIP application servers and other service platforms. Thus, video services such as Video on Demand (VoD) and broadcast media streaming, can be delivered in coordination with voice and data services over an access network (e.g. 2G/3G, fixed, cable, Wi-Fi) and a variety of session/call control and switching technologies. Unified service interaction and control throughout an operator's entire service offering generates a greater quality of experience (QoE) for the end-user combining media, telephony and other communication and value added services.



Convergin's Accolade platform also allows SIP and IMS platforms to issue SIP queries towards legacy wireline AIN/INAP services, enabling operators' SS7 services to be delivered to the SS7/TDM switches as well as to next generation softswitches and IMS/SIP CSCFs. Convergin said its SCIM platform not only enable SIP access to existing legacy SCP-based services, but can also control the access to those services from various switching platforms and service providers.

http://www.convergin.com

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Global Crossing Supports Belgacom International Carrier Services

Global Crossing was awarded a contract to support the consolidation of Belgacom ICS' existing infrastructure in continental Europe and the UK through the provision of network infrastructure, creating the foundation for a 40-Gbps capable European backbone. Specifically, Global Crossing will provide 3,000 km of dark fiber and associated colocation space connecting 36 major points of presence in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France and Germany, as well as wavelengths on routes that are geographically dispersed from Belgacom ICS' network.



This follows the formation in 2005 of a joint venture between the Belgian and Swiss incumbents, Belgacom SA and Swisscom Fixnet AG, to combine their international carrier businesses. Belgacom ICS is headquartered in Brussels and has offices in Bern, New York, Singapore and Dubai.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

http://www.belgacom.com

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Global Crossing Supports Global Caribbean Network

Global Crossing announced an agreement to interconnect its network with Global Caribbean Network (GCN), a subsea cable operator headquartered in Guadeloupe, French West Indies, to enhance global IP connectivity to the Caribbean region. GCN will interconnect its voice and data traffic services arriving from the Caribbean to Global Crossing's IP network in St. Croix, via 10-Gigabit wavelengths, enabling GCN to extend its services to North America, Europe and Asia.



GCN is a subsidiary of Groupe Loret, an enterprise conglomerate responsible for different businesses in various segments, including real estate, communications, automotive, and air transportation, among others. GCN began offering its commercial services in the Caribbean in October 2006 through the official launch of the first phase of its GCN-1 system, which connects Guadeloupe, St. Martin, St. Barthelemy, San Juan and St. Croix. It is currently expanding its reach further south in the Caribbean to Dominica, Martinique, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Barbados, Grenada and Trinidad as part of the second and third phases of the project, in 2007.

http://www.globalcrossing.com

http://www.globalcaribbean.net

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Skype Licenses HelloSoft's Internet-Telephony for SmartPhones

Skype has licensed HelloSoft's Internet-Telephony technology, which will be incorporated into Skype's communication software. The HelloSoft technology enables the Skype service from smartphones and Pocket PCs connected to the Internet.



"Our technology will support today's mobile and wireless generation as they use Skype on the go. We are excited to be working with Skype to enhance the performance of Skype for Windows Mobile," said Krishna Yarlagadda, HelloSoft's President and CEO.

http://www.hellosoft.com

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AT&T Introduces Pay-Per-Use Push To Talk Service

Cingular Wireless introduced a Push To Talk (PTT) service that is available on a pay-per-use basis. Customers using one of several wireless phones can now use the company's PTT service, as needed, for $.15 per minute. Unique icons on the phone indicate whether other PTT customers are available before making a PTT call. The service also supports the ability to a convert a PTT call to a regular wireless voice call. Calls with up to 30 participants can be converted, creating a mobile conference call. Customers can also send a voice message to one person or a whole group.



Cingular launched its first PTT service over a year ago on a contractual basis. Since launching service, AT&T's wireless unit has sold more than two million PTT capable phones.

http://www.att.com

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Personeta Receives Cisco Funding for FMC

Personeta, a start-up developing of converged service creation and application solutions for communications service providers, announced an equity investment from Cisco. The company said it plans to use the funding to further its development of solutions and components based on its TappS NSC product for next- generation, converged service delivery -- particularly in the areas of fixed- mobile convergence (FMC) and multimedia solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

http://www.personeta.com/

• Personeta's TappS NSC is an application server and a next-generation service platform. It provides a high level of programmability with a broad set of Java APIs.

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Aperto Adds $19 Million in Funding to Accelerate WiMAX Plans

Aperto Networks, a developer of WiMAX base stations and subscriber units has completed a follow-on Series E financing round of $19 million, bringing the company's total capitalization to $139 million.



Aperto, which is based in Milpitas, California, currently claims more than 200 customers in 65 countries.



The financing round, the third tranche in the series, was led by GunnAllen Venture Partners and included participation from all of the existing investors including JK&B Capital, Canaan Partners, Alliance Ventures, Innovacom, JAFCO, Labrador Ventures, and Tyco.

http://www.apertonet.com

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Mistletoe Partners with Kaspersky Lab

Mistletoe Technologies, a start-up offering a security system-on-a-chip (SoC) featuring VPN, firewall and denial of service prevention applications in silicon, announced a partnership with Kaspersky Lab, a developer of secure content management solutions. The collaboration is a part of Mistletoe'a on-going effort to integrate best-in-class software that will enable system manufacturers to increase unified threat management (UTM) performance and network security, while reducing system development time and expense.

http://www.mistletoetech.com

http://www.viruslist.com

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Juniper Posts Revenue of $595.8M, up 4% from Q4 05

Juniper Networks reported Q4 2006 revenue of $595.8 million, compared with $575.5 million for the same quarter last year, an increase of 4 percent. Net revenues for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2006 were $2,303.6 million, compared with $2,064.0 million for the same period last year, an increase of approximately 12 percent.



"2006 marked our 10th anniversary and a year of considerable progress which culminated with record revenue results in the fourth quarter," said Scott Kriens, Juniper Networks' Chairman and CEO. "Moving into 2007, we see a marketplace that presents us with significant opportunity to deliver strategic value to customers, scale our ability to execute and continue to grow our business."http://www.juniper.net

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Strix Wireless Mesh Network Deployed in Mumbai

Strix Systems' wireless mesh networking gear is being deployed in Mumbai, India by LifeStyle Networks Pvt. Ltd. Nearly 1,000 radios are already in operation and more than 2,000 additional radios will be operational before mid-2007. Financial terms were not disclosed.



Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with over 18 million people.



Strix Systems' modular mesh products support up to six radios and 768 users per node. Strix networks scale to 10 or more wireless hops with near-zero throughput loss and latency.

http://www.strixsystems.com

http://www.lifestyle-networks.com

	Wireless Mesh Networking for Developing Countries
Wireless mesh networks have become a new economic stimulus for the developed economies of North America, Europe and East Asia. This is especially true at the municipal level, where city after city are announcing major Wi-Fi initiatives. However, the impact of Wi-Fi and mesh is even more significant in developing countries, where telecom services have been limited. Consider Bangladesh....

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Sprint Expands EVDO-Rev A Rollout

Sprint rolled out EV-DO Revision A coverage in South Florida, Portland, Ore. and Puerto Rico. The Sprint service is available in 21 other major markets across the U.S. EV-DO Revision A offers faster average upload speeds of 350-500 Kbps (compared with 50-70 Kbps of current EV-DO networks) and average download speeds of 600 Kbps-1.4 Mbps (from 400-700 Kbps).

http://www.sprint.com

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EC Prevails in Court 2003 Case against Wanadoo

The European Commission prevailed in a legal case in which France Télécom SA, formerly Wanadoo Interactive SA, had appealed the Commission's 2003 decision concerning predatory pricing. In July 2003, the Commission fined Wanadoo EUR 10.35 million for charging predatory (below cost) prices for its Pack eXtense and Wanadoo ADSL services as part of a plan aimed at excluding competitors from the market for high speed internet access. The Court of First Instance ruled that the European Commission was right to reach its conclusion in the matter. The court also confirmed the EUR 10.35 million fine imposed by the Commission.

http://www.europa.eu

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Motorola Invests in DARTdevices

Motorola Ventures has made a Series A investment in DARTdevices Corporation, a start-up that is developing software that lets multiple consumer devices directly access the combined content and applications of any DART-enabled device such as mobile phones and PCs. The software allows wired and wireless distribution of applications, games and information such as music, photos, video, calendars and data, across mobile phones, PCs, Internet servers, PDAs, set-tops, MP3 players and DVRs. Financial terms were not disclosed.



DATdevices is based in Mountain View, Californiahttp://www.dartdevices.com

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Devicescape Debuts Consumer WiFi-to-Device Service

Devicescape Software introduced a consumer service that allows any Wi-Fi enabled device, like media players, VoIP phones or game systems, to automatically connect to Wi-Fi hotspots and municipal networks. The service is aimed at simplifying the process of accessing multiple WiFi services when using a WiFi enabled device. It works like this:

• Consumers log-on to the Devicescape and download a free client application for their device



• The consumer then registers the device on the Devicescape website and indicates which WiFi networks they wish to use. Where appropriated, they register their user names and password for the desired WiFi network.



• After this, the user's devices will automatically login to the Wi-Fi network without any user interaction.

Devicescape is licensing its technology to device manufacturers, enabling them to provide products that effortlessly connect to the Wi-Fi networks their customers need. Currently, Devicescape supports over 30 public networks including the largest carriers in the world such as T-Mobile, BT and NTT; municipal networks such as Google WiFi; universities such as UC Berkeley; and the FON community.

http://www.devicescape.com/

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Seagate's DAVE platform Offers 10-20GB of Mobile Storage

Seagate Technology unveiled its Digital Audio Video Experience (D.A.V.E) technology -- previously code-named "Crickett" -- offering 10-20 GB of wireless storage in an accessory smaller than many common slim-line mobile phones. The DAVE mobile platform is about the size of a centimeter-thick credit card and connects to the owner's mobile phone using Bluetooth or WiFi.


Seagate said the 10GB version will hold about 2,500 songs or 21 hours of video. A rechargeable lithium ion battery delivers up to 10 hours of media-streaming performance and up to 14 days of standby power.



In addition to the hard drive, the DAVE also incorporates an application processor from Marvell. Seagate will be releasing an open API development kit to encourage third-party applications.

http://www.seagate.com

• In December 2006, Agere Systems unveiled its BluOnyx Mobile Content Server, a new consumer product category designed to un-tether users from the PC and stationary storage devices by giving them access to content and applications in a portable device. It incorporates a choice of Flash storage or HDD, along with an application processor.
  

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blinkx Develops Video Blogging Tool

blinkx, a leading video search engine, is introducing a free tool that that enables bloggers to insert relevant video streams into their blogs. The San Francisco-based start-up said this will enable users to become broadcasters by harnessing the variety of content in its video index.

http://www.blinkx.com

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Goodrich Chooses AT&T for MPLS

Goodrich Corporation, a global aerospace and defense supplier, has selected AT&T to provide next-generation network services under a multiyear contract valued at more than $4 million. The contract includes MPLS connectivity, engineering services and advanced monitoringhttp://www.att.com

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Carl Icahn Seeks Appointment to Motorola's Board

Motorola said it received a nomination to appoint Carl C. Icahn to its Board of Directors. The nomination came Carl Icahn entities that "may be deemed to beneficially own, in the aggregate, 33,529,000 shares, representing approximately 1.39% of the Corporation's outstanding shares."http://www.motorola.com

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NTT DoCoMo Offers Flat-Rate Data Plans

NTT DoCoMo will begin offering flat-rate data communications billing plans beginning March 1. The "Pake-hodai full" plan will enable FOMA i-mode subscribers with full-browser handsets to view not only i-mode but also websites and videos in Windows Media format with a flat monthly rate of 5,985 yen. The "Biz-hodai" will offer flat-rate packet communications for non-i-mode FOMA handsets at a monthly rate of 5,985 yen.



In addition, DoCoMo plans to introduce a FOMA 64kbps data-card flat-rate packet billing plan this autumn to replace @FreeD, a flat-rate plan for Internet access via the PHS service, which will be discontinued at the end of this year.

http://www.nttdocomo.com/

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Tektronix Enhances its IP Video Monitoring Capabilities

Tektronix announced new monitoring capabilities for its MPEG Transport test platform, including expanded monitoring coverage of simultaneous IP streams, with the ability to drill down through the IP layer and analyze the MPEG layer in depth. Specifically, the Tektronix MTM400 MPEG Transport Stream Monitor now provides simultaneous monitoring of critical Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for up to 500 MPEG Transport Streams carried within a Gigabit Ethernet link to aid rapid fault resolution.



The simultaneous monitoring of up to 500 IP sessions includes critical MPEG Transport Stream errors (Sync and Continuity Count), IP packet errors (Lost and Out of Order RTP packets and packet CRC errors) and IP timing (Packet Inter-arrival time). The Transport Stream error testing is undertaken at the PID level and both Multi Program Transport Streams (MPTS) and Single Program Transport Streams (SPTS) are supported.



Tektronix has also added an automatic channel changing capability to sequentially poll multiple streams for the MTM400. This capability allows up to 200 IP sessions to be monitored in depth. The polling option is also available for the MTM400 with RF interfaces, where it allows for polling of up to 200 RF channels. An MTM400 using the polling option monitors each selected IP session or RF channel in a repeating sequential measurement process. Multi-stream polling ability makes a single MTM400 probe a broader tool, monitoring large numbers of network points in a time sampled measurement mode. http://www.tektronix.com

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Zeugma Hires Former Director of Alcatel Triple Play Marketing

Zeugma Systems, a start-up based in Vancouver, announced the appointment of Mr. Mehdi Sif as Vice President, Marketing. Mehdi joins the Zeugma Systems team from Alcatel-Lucent where he was Director, Triple Play Solutions Marketing. He previously held multiple senior product line and marketing management positions at Juniper Networks for core routing platforms, Nortel Networks for VPN and Security solutions and Bay Networks for enterprise routing.




Zeugma is developing a telecommunications system for next generation, high speed broadband networks. Product plans have not yet been disclosed.

http://www.zeugmasystems.com

• Zeugma Systems is head by Andrew Harries, co-founder, President and CEO, who previously was co-founder of Sierra Wireless Inc. and formerly at Motorola. Its team also included Siegfried Luft, founder, CTO and formerly a co-founder of Siara Systems, which merged with Redback Networks.



• In the summer of 2006 Zeugma Systems announced the completion of its US$15.75 million Series A financing. The financing was led by San Francisco-based Granite Ventures and syndicated by Ventures West, Yaletown Venture Partners, GrowthWorks Capital Ltd., BDC Venture Capital and Zeugma management and staff.

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USCarrier Selects Ciena

USCarrier Telecom will deploy Ciena's CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform for in its Southeastern metropolitan and regional networks to upgrade its existing SONET network. USCarrier is headquartered in Atlanta and serves more than 40 cities in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. Financial terms were not disclosed.
http://www.ciena.com

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Ikanos and Jungo Announce VDSL2 Residential Gateway Design

Ikanos Communications and Jungo Ltd. introduced a joint VDSL2 Residential Gateway (RG) reference design for triple play services. The new VDSL2 residential gateway platform, which is backward compatible with ADSL2/2+ and VDSL1, combines Jungo's OpenRG gateway software with Ikanos' Fusiv processor. The platform delivers 100 Mbps symmetrical throughput utilizing the underlying Fusiv architecture.



The joint reference platform is designed to support a number of applications, including VDSL2, ADSL2+, IPTV, home media distribution, home networking, VoIP, WLAN, Ethernet switching, data routing, NAT, firewall and TR-069 remote management support.

http://www.ikanos.com/http://www.jungo.com

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TANDBERG Delivers Adaptive Telepresence Solution

TANDBERG introduced an across-the-table telepresence solution that creates a highly collaborative, in-person meeting experience.



The TANDBERG Experia, which will be released in Q2, is being positioned as a "natural communication experience." Key features include high-definition (HD) video, one-touch connectivity, low bandwidth requirements and optimization for six participants per site. Experia can also be managed through TANDBERG Management Suite (TMS) as well as existing desktop tools.



TANDBERG already offered a number of other telepresence solutions, including an immersive telepresence environment called HP Halo Collaboration Studio offered in partnership with HP. TANDBERG's existing High Definition systems can also deliver telepresence to additional office environments through the HP Halo Video Exchange Network (HVEN).

http://www.tandberg.net

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Orange "Unik for Professionals" Combines Fixed/Mobile Telephony

Orange introduced a "Unik for Professionals" fixed and mobile telephony service for business customers. "Unik for Professionals" uses a GSM/WiFi mobile phone that connects via WiFi to a Livebox Pro gateway when inside the office.



With the Livebox Pro, Orange is offering unlimited 24/7 calling to all national and international landlines (Europe, USA and Canada).



Orange said that calls started through the Livebox Pro can continue outside on the GSM network with no interruption. The user is kept informed of which network is being used by a symbol on the phone display. Calls initiated at the workplace are therefore included in the unlimited offer, even once the call has switched over to the mobile network. Calls initiated away from the workplace are deducted from the customer's usual Orange mobile minutes.



The Unik for Professionals contract is offered as a limited edition to 10,000 subscribers in mainland France until April 18th 2007, at a price of EUR15.88 excl. VAT per month. Customers must already have an Orange broadband connection (minimum 1 megamax), a Livebox and must acquire a Unik-compatible handset (UMA technology).



Orange is currently offering three UMA handsets: the Nokia 6136, the Samsung P200 and soon the Motorola A910 with a reimbursement offer of EUR 30.

http://www.francetelecom.com

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NDS Announces Peer-to-Peer Content Sharing and Distributed-DVR Capabilities

NDS, which supplies end-to-end content protection systems for network operators, announced two new product enhancements of Synamedia Metro, the NDS IPTV middleware solution.



The new capabilities are an in-home Distributed-DVR function and a "ShareTV" P2P aimed at lowering storage and bandwidth overhead of archive-TV for IPTV operators.

• Distributed DVR: Traditionally, DVRs require a set-top box (STB) with a disk contained in it. Distributed DVR capability from NDS uses the home network and Jungo Residential Gateway UPnP software to find suitable external hard disks for DVR TV storage. Without the need for a hard drive, the cost of the IP-STB is reduced, and the residential gateway becomes the home's virtual on-demand TV server. The subscriber therefore is not restricted by the amount of storage provided in the STB. Furthermore, the subscriber can add as much storage to the home network as required to store recorded programs.



• ShareTV: Once content is stored within the home network, ShareTV allows IPTV subscribers to legally share their stored TV content using peer-to-peer technology running in the Jungo Residential Gateway software. For example, a missed episode of a TV series can be requested from other subscribers using Share TV's peer-to-peer software. ShareTV manages the download of the content from other peers on the operator's network and then stores it on a selected hard disk for playback.

NDS said its VideoGuard technology protects both the rights of content owners and those of operators for both ShareTV and Distributed-DVR. As the media files are encrypted, content is protected even if the content is transferred to a portable media player. A subscriber can only access and view content for which they have a valid subscription.

http://www.nds.com

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World Wide Packets Adds Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) Support

World Wide Packets is now supporting Provider Backbone Transport (PBT) through its LightningEdge 311v platform (LE-311v).



PBT is a means of Ethernet tunneling with MPLS interoperability.



World Wide Packets LE-311v, a Layer 2 VPN platform, also supports transparent LAN Services delivered over Ethernet or over MPLS. With the addition of PBT, the LE-311v will simplify the network and enable service providers to drive down the overall costs of deployment which allows for the generation of new revenue by offering optimal services at a fraction of the cost.



"PBT is quickly becoming part of the next generation of Carrier Ethernet delivery. Therefore, we are committed to supporting PBT in our current and future offerings and will continue to work closely with customers to integrate these services into their architectures," said Kevin Daines, CTO, World Wide Packets.

http://www.worldwidepackets.com

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Juniper Routers Achieve Ethernet First Mile OAM Certification

Iometrix, an independent testing lab, has certified that Juniper's M- and T-series routers are the industry's first routing platforms to successfully pass Iometrix compliance testing for Ethernet in the First Mile Operations Administration and Maintenance (OAM), as specified by IEEE draft 802.3ah.



IEEE draft 802.3ah specifies reliability and high availability requirements for Ethernet-based services, enabling service providers to deliver advanced, cost-effective Ethernet-based services with the high levels of quality and reliability required for business-class services.



The IEEE's 802.3ah OAM draft outlines requirements for link monitoring, fault signaling, and remote loopback capabilities. These features allow service providers to better manage customer access and to monitor and trouble-shoot network operations for Ethernet based services. Juniper Networks successfully tested all the required components of 802.3ah as well as many optional specifications which enable additional advanced capabilities and features.

http://www.juniper.net

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Nokia Siemens Networks to Outline Product Plan in Feb

Nokia and Siemens plan to start sharing the proposed product portfolio plan for the future Nokia Siemens Networks with employees and customers starting in early February. Planning is still underway to assess the personnel, site and country-level impact of the proposed product portfolio plan as well as expected transition times and requirements for ongoing support for existing products.



"As we continue to make strong progress in integration planning for Nokia Siemens Networks, it is critical that we are able to maintain the strong support that we have seen so far from customers by providing them with clarity about our future portfolio plans," said Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO-designate of Nokia Siemens Networks.



As previously announced, the synergies associated with the creation of Nokia Siemens Networks are expected to result in a headcount adjustment over the next four years of approximately 10-15 percent from the initial combined base of approximately 60,000.



The companies said their planned merger is now expected to close in the first quarter of 2007.

http://www.nokia.com

http://wwww.siemens.com

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Motorola and TI Expands Relationship to High-Volume 3G, WiMAX and OMAP

Motorola and Texas Instruments are expanding their strategic relationship to include 3G, WiMAX and OMAP technologies in the design and development of new, experience-optimized mobile devices. The expanded relationship covers current, emerging and next-generation wireless standards and leverages intellectual property from both Motorola and TI.



As part of the expansion, Motorola is developing 3G handsets based on a TI customized 3G solution that will include high-performance, power-efficient processors from TI's OMAP 3 architecture, as well as advanced, unique 3G and 3.5G building blocks from both Motorola and TI. New handsets using this solution are expected to be available to consumers as early as 2008.



Additionally, TI is supporting Motorola's mobile WiMAX initiative, including development of a customized Motorola WiMAX solution, and providing digital design elements, high-performance analog components, RF solutions, and manufacturing process and fabrication expertise. The solution will focus on core 802.16e mobile WiMAX functionality supporting voice, video and data for low-power mobile applications. The solution will be manufactured in 65nm and is expected to be ready to support production of new mobile devices that Motorola plans to launch during 2008.

http://www.motorola.com

http://www.ti.com/wirelesspressroom

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Extreme Networks Adds DHCP-Based Edge Security (NAC)

Extreme Networks has updated its modular operating system, ExtremeXOSversion 11.6, featuring new enhancements for securing networks using Network Access Control (NAC) technologies. The switch-based enforcement allows network administrators to securely deploy NAC using DHCP or 802.1x.



Extreme Networks noted that many enterprises deploying NAC to protect the network perimeter have used DHCP servers, which left vulnerabilities. Users that were denied access could simply configure a static IP address to gain entry into the network and get out of quarantine. Extreme Networks removes this NAC exploit, as the switch enforces all endpoints to only allow devices with valid DHCP assigned IP addresses into the network. Users that attempt to bypass NAC solutions will be automatically blocked by the switch and alert the administrator of the attempted breach.



ExtremeXOS has also introduced enhancements to 802.1x through the innovative Universal Port framework. Universal Port simplifies network operations by automatically provisioning network resources when new users and devices connect. When combined with 802.1x, Universal Port provides more granular policy enforcement including per-user Quality of Service (QoS), rate limiting of bandwidth, and dynamic ACLs.



Both of these enhancements in the latest ExtremeXOS release can be used in conjunction with Sentriant AG, Extreme Networks NAC solution, to lock down the edge of the network and help ensure endpoints are free from threats and in compliance with company security policies before gaining access. Sentriant AG provides deep endpoint testing without requiring an agent and supports both DHCP and 802.1x enforcement modes allowing it to easily integrate with any network environment.
http://www.extremenetworks.com

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Broadcom Offers New Chips for Bluetooth Wireless Headsets

Broadcom introduced a new silicon and software platform that significantly improves the user experience of wireless mono and stereo headsets. Based on the company's existing Bluetooth technology, the audio portfolio features two new single-chip solutions that support Bluetooth Version 2.0 with EDR (upgradeable to Bluetooth Version 2.1) and Broadcom's "SmartAudio" sound enhancement technology. Sampling is underway.



The Bluetooth headset market now exceeds the 80 million unit threshold.

http://www.broadcom.com

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Brocade Completes McDATA Acquisition

Brocade completed its acquisition of McDATA Corporation, a transaction valued at approximately $973 million. Brocade also embarked on a new branding campaign, including an updated logo and website. Brocade is launching an integrated product and service offering across the range of its Storage Area Network (SAN) and File Area Network (FAN) solutions, including professional services.

http://www.brocade.com

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Solarflare Introduces Low-power 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller

Solarflare Communications introduced a low-power 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller that operates at just 2.2 watts. The company said its device offers the lowest latency of all 10 Gigabit Ethernet controllers in the market, and it supports virtualization of its host interface, providing the most efficient way to accelerate I/O in virtualized operating system deployments. In addition, the company introduced the industry's first standards- compliant 10GBASE-T server adapter reference design, along with 10GBASE-CX4 and XFP optical server adapter reference designs.

http://www.solarflare.com

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Global IP Sound Becomes Global IP Solutions, Acquires Video Codec

Global IP Sound, a supplier of voice quality enhancement software for VoIP, has re-named itself to Global IP Solutions (GIPS) to reflect the expansion and broadening of its market position, including new multi-media technology to be integrated with all of GIPS offerings and real-time applications for the Enterprise market.



GIPS acquired Espre Solutions patented video codec technology, which it plans to incorporate into all GIPS' client and server Engines, enabling service providers, application developers, and hardware manufacturers to develop IP enabled media with enhanced sound and image quality. Financial terms were not disclosed.

GIPS has also acquired CrystalVoice, a provider of real-time IP-based applications, and plans to offer enterprise-based solutions. The acquisition includes patented security and packet management technologies that offer targeted enterprise based solutions. GIPS said it will partner with Cisco, Avaya and 3COM to offer these enterprise market solutions, which include Remote Extension and Click-to-Talk functionality. Remote Extension provides the ability to have high quality and secure voice extensions to enterprise IP-PBX networks. Click-to-Talk will allow enterprises to integrate communication functionality to any web site allowing those enterprises to offer immediate VoIP connectivity to their markets. Financial terms of this deal were not disclosed.



http://www.globalipsound.comCompanies using Global IP Solutions products include Nortel, Skype, WebEx, Yahoo!, AOL, EarthLink, BlueCross/BlueShield and other key players in the VoIP market.

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Mobile Satellite Ventures Appoints Nextel Exec as Chief Network Officer

Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV), which is developing a hybrid satellite-terrestrial communications network for coverage across the U.S. and Canada, has hired Drew Caplan as Chief Network Officer. Mr. Caplan will be responsible for MSV's network engineering and technology functions, as well as leading the development and deployment of MSV's next generation network.



Prior to joining MSV, Mr. Caplan served as Vice President of National Network Services at Nextel Communications from November 1996 to August 2005. Prior to joining Nextel, Caplan served in progressive engineering, operations, and product development roles in MCI Communications from 1983 to 1995. He was a founding member of MCImetro, MCI's CLEC startup, in 1993, overseeing the launch of their first 20 switched services market.

http://www.msvlp.com

• In May 2006, Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) and its joint venture partner, MSV Canada, announced an agreement with Boeing to accelerate the deployment of its two North American satellites, which will form the backbone of its satellite-cellular wireless communications network. The agreement will move up, by approximately eight months, the construction, launch and operations of each of the two North American satellites, with the launch of the U.S. satellite scheduled for mid-2009 and the Canadian satellite in early 2010. These two new satellites will replace and expand upon the current MSAT satellite system operated by MSV and MSV Canada. The development of the third satellite for South America, MSV-SA, has been deferred to the third delivery position for the MSV system.


• Ancillary Terrestrial Component (ATC) technology allows existing satellite phone spectrum to also be used in dedicated terrestrial networks. Call capacity is managed and reallocated, in real time, between satellite and terrestrial networks via a common control center.

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Verizon Reaches 7.0 million Broadband, 207,000 FiOS TV Customers

Verizon ended 2006 with 7.0 million broadband connections, up 35.7% year-over-year, with more than 1.8 million net adds (FiOS and DSL) for the year and 409,000 net new adds for Q4. The company served 207,000 FiOS TV customers by year-end, with the service available for sale to 2.4 million premises, nearly doubling the addressable market in one quarter. FiOS Internet customers accounted for 165,000 of the net broadband connection additions in the fourth quarter and totaled 687,000 at year-end.



Verizon Communications posted Q4 operating revenues of $22.6 billion, a 26.1 percent increase compared with the fourth quarter 2005. Full-year 2006 operating revenues were $88.1 billion, a 26.8 percent increase compared with 2005.



Q4 reported earnings were $1.0 billion, or 35 cents per share, compared with $1.7 billion, or 59 cents per share, in the fourth quarter 2005. Fourth-quarter 2006 earnings include non-recurring charges for the recognition of taxes related to the sale of Verizon's Dominican Republic assets and for costs related to the spin-off of Verizon's directories publishing business.



Some highlights for the quarter:

• Verizon Wireless added 2.3 million net customers in the fourth quarter 2006 for a total of 59.1 million customers nationwide, a 15 percent increase in total customers from the end of the fourth quarter 2005.



• Verizon Wireless reported total churn of 1.14 percent for the quarter and 1.17 percent for the year. Churn among the company's retail post-paid customers -- almost 93 percent of total customers -- was even lower, at 0.89 percent for Q4 and 0.91 percent for the year.



• Verizon Wireless quarterly revenues topped $10 billion for the first time.



• New broadband and video sales have more than made up for a reduction in primary wireline voice access lines of customers. The company added 142,000 more net broadband and video customers during the fourth quarter 2006 than it lost in primary wireline voice access lines, compared with 120,000 added in the third quarter 2006. Primary residential access lines decreased by 366,000 in the fourth quarter 2006 compared with the third quarter 2006, while Verizon added 508,000 residential broadband and video customers over the same period.



• At year-end 2006, Verizon served 45.1 million total domestic wireline access lines -- which also include secondary residential lines, public telephones, business lines and wholesale voice connections. This is a 7.6 percent decrease compared with year-end 2005.



• Verizon Business operating revenues rose to $5.3 billion in the fourth quarter 2006. This is a 2.3 percent increase compared with the third quarter 2006, and a 2.7 percent increase compared with the fourth quarter 2005 (pro- forma).



• CAPEX totaled $17.1 billion in 2006, including $1.6 billion due to the inclusion of former MCI, compared with $15.0 billion in 2005. Verizon is targeting capital expenditures of from $17.5 billion to $17.9 billion in 2007. As part of that total, Wireline capital expenditures are expected in the range of $10.7 billion to $10.9 billion, and Wireless capital expenditures are expected in the range of $6.6 billion to $6.8 billion.

http://www.verizon.com

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Atheros Introduces Bluetooth 2.1 Chip for PCs

Atheros Communications, a leading supplier of 802.11a/g, 802.11g, and 802.11n WLAN chipsets, introduced its first Bluetooth chip for laptops and desktops, enabling WLAN co-existence and simultaneous usage of multiple Bluetooth-based devices like mice, keyboards, voice and stereo headsets and mobile phones. The company said it foresees rapid adoption of Bluetooth alongside WiFi as the cost to implement the technology declines and the number of peripherals multiplies.



The Atheros AR3011, which is the first member of the company's new "ROCm", Radio-on-Chip for Mobile, family of Bluetooth solutions, supports the new Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR specification. Bluetooth 2.1 introduces a number of enhancement to short-range wireless communications, including:

• Secure Simple Pairing -- improves ease of pairing of Bluetooth devices while implementing strong security;



• Encryption Pause and Resume -- increases security in the link by ensuring that no user data is transmitted without encryption and enables periodic update of the keys;



• Extended Inquiry Response -- provides better filtering of devices before connection;



• Sniff Subrating -- reduces power consumption when devices are in the sniff, low-power mode, increasing battery-life.

The AR3011 features a USB 2.0 device interface, dual 1.2V voltage regulators, integrated 32-bit CPU, and integrated RAM. The device is implemented in standard digital CMOS using 0.13 micron in a miniature, low-cost 6x6 mm QFN package. Atheros eliminated the need for external Flash by integrating SRAM. To reduce the number of external RF components, Atheros designed the AR3011 radio to eliminate the need for Balun and matching network. The AR3011 also offers 2- , 3- and 4-wire TDM co-existence support to provide optimal co-existence with a co-located WLAN solution. Availability is set for this quarter.

http://www.atheros.com

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Yipes and NASDAQ to Offer Market Data Access and Trading via Ethernet Extranet

Yipes Enterprise Services and the NASDAQ Stock Market will offer market data access and trading capabilities through the Yipes FinancialConnect! platform.



Yipes FinancialConnect! is an Ethernet-based extranet for electronic trading capable of directly delivering financial market and exchange data to banks, brokers, hedge funds, and institutional investors.



Yipes is evolving from being a bandwidth provider to a trusted source of content for the financial community.



Yipes said the agreement represents a major step forward in the development of its FinancialConnect! service and further validates Ethernet as the next-generation network of choice for electronic trading. The dramatic rise in electronic trading volume continues to be a major issue for exchanges at all levels, making trading technology and connectivity innovation increasingly important operational considerations.



Yipes currently links hundreds of financial services firms to member exchanges and trading platforms. Yipes FinancialConnect! employs the company's secure, global, fiber-based network and guarantees connectivity with aggressive service level agreements (SLAs).



In concert with the launch of Yipes FinancialConnect last month, Yipes also announced an agreement with the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE). ICE (www.theice.com) was the first exchange to offer extranet connectivity via the Yipes network. Yipes expects to announce additional exchange agreements in the coming months.

http://www.yipes.com

• Yipes operates a global native Ethernet network that employs Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) over an MPLS platform. At the physical layer, Yipes leverages its 14,000 metro fiber route mile infrastructure over which it offers Ethernet services at speeds up to 1 Gbps. The company operates primary POPs in 17 major metropolitan markets: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, London, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tokyo and Washington D.C.

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Tropic Measures Chromatic Dispersion in Metro Optical Networks

Tropic Networks, which specializes in metro regional ROADM systems, announced a new means to measure chromatic dispersion in fiber networks. The new Wavelength Tracker technology enables Tropic to characterize the loss characteristics of each wavelength across an entire network, providing carriers with a chromatic dispersion map of their networks and enabling them to adapt as needed. Chromatic dispersion limits the optical network reach and data rate that the network can support. The issue becomes increasing critical at higher transmission, especially 40 Gbps.



Tropic Networks already offered the capability to uniquely identify wavelengths (including multiple instances of the same ITU grid wavelength) and provide colorless add/drops on its ROADM modules.



"Having the ability to measure and adjust automatically for chromatic dispersion in-service will reduce network costs as the need for wide-range, per-wavelength tunable compensation is eliminated. It will enable the use of lower-cost, pluggable DWDM XFPs on directly-connected client devices that have lower dispersion tolerances. It will allow for automatic network "tuning" as we move to broader optical mesh deployments and to 40G transmission speeds," said Rob Lane, Vice President, Sales and Marketing.



Tropic noted that traditional methods of accurately compensating for chromatic dispersion typically involve measuring every fiber span in a optical network individually using external dispersion measurement equipment, and applying pre-defined bulk dispersion compensation modules at pre-determined points in the optical network. More recently, 40 Gbps transponder suppliers have been developing per-transponder tunable dispersion compensation, which drives up transponder costs.



New software for Tropic's existing hardware measures the difference in the arrival time of wavelengths through the fiber. This enables Tropic to fully characterize the plant for both loss and chromatic dispersion, thereby allowing the use lower-cost transponders at both 10 Gbpss and 40 Gbps.

http://www.tropicnetworks.com

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Fujitsu Shows 10Gbps Ethernet Switch Chip

Fujitsu Microelectronics America (FMA) is showcasing its 65-nanometer process technology and 10Gbps Ethernet switch at this week's DesignCon in Santa Clara, California. Fujitsu's 65nm process technology integrates 11 interconnect layers and uses advanced copper and porous low-k dielectric materials to increase device signal speeds and reduce power consumption. Fujitsu's single-chip, 20-port, 10 Gbps Ethernet switch chip supports a direct, 10Gbps serial interface to XFP optical modules, providing a solution for network server, blade server and storage applications. The switch chip delivers 400+Gbps, non-blocking, aggregate switching bandwidth through 3Mbytes of proprietary, multi-stream shared buffer memory, with the on-chip 10Gbps serial SerDes.

http://www.fma.fujitsu.com/

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Bivio Networks Unveils 10 Gbps Deep Packet Inspection Appliance

Bivio Networks, a start-up based in Pleasanton, California, is expanding its family of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) appliances with the introduction of the Bivio 7000 Series and Bivio 6500 Series platforms.



The new Bivio 7000 Series and Bivio 6500 Series network appliance platforms deliver 10 Gbps deep packet inspection capabilities starting at price points below $10,000. Bivio's new platforms enable both standard-Linux and custom application development and integration within the widely adopted BivOS networking and management execution environment.



The platforms are targeted at security application vendors, network equipment manufacturers, federal government agencies needing to deploy high-performance platforms that can support security applications such as network monitoring, analysis, surveillance, content filtering, and leak prevention as well as service providers offering policy-centric managed security, storage, voice, and mobility services to large financial and enterprise customers.



The Bivio 7000 Series is designed for customers that have developed Linux-based networking applications with demanding packet processing requirements. The appliance uses parallel application execution engines to provide massive packet processing capabilities in a 2U chassis form factor.



The Bivio 6500 Series of network appliance platforms are designed specifically for custom application development within a non-Linux operating environment. As with all Bivio products, the Bivio 6500 features the BiviOS operating system that provides management capabilities.



Both the Bivio 7000 Series and Bivio 6500 Series will be available in early Q2 2007.

http://www.bivio.net

• In August 2006, Bivio secured $8.5 million in venture capital funding. Silver Creek Ventures led the round with participation from Bivio's current investors, InterWest Partners, Storm Ventures, Venrock Associates, and Goldman Sachs.

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Broadcom Wins Second Patent Case Against Qualcomm

A federal jury in San Diego ruled that Broadcom did not infringe two patents for digital video compression owned by QUALCOMM.



"This is a victory not just for Broadcom but for the entire digital video community, against an attempt by Qualcomm once again to tax an important new technology -- in this instance based upon the claims of a single patent. The trial not only showed that Qualcomm was wrong about Broadcom's alleged infringement, but also cast a bright light on Qualcomm's penchant for abusing the rules and procedures of industry standards-making bodies," said David A. Dull, Broadcom's Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

http://www.broadcom.com

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Global Telecom Market Grew 11% in 2006 to $3 Trillion

The U.S. market grew 9.3 percent in 2006 to total $923 billion in revenue, and the worldwide telecommunications market grew 11.2% to total $3 trillion, according to the Telecommunications Industry Association's (TIA's) 2007 Telecommunications Market Review and Forecast.



In 2006, cable modems and DSL continued to dominate the U.S. market, capturing 96 percent of the broadband market, which in 2005 overtook dial-up access service. More than 12 million miles of fiber were deployed in 2006, up 9.1 percent from 2005, with nearly 10 million miles being deployed by the telephone companies. Though accounting for just 10 percent of U.S. wireless revenue in 2006, wireless data and multimedia services are forecast to make up 24 percent of all wireless revenue by 2010. Growth is also expected in VoIP, which is forecast to make up 34 percent of all U.S. residential landlines by 2010, or 25.5 million subscribers, up from just 10 percent and 9.5 million subscribers in 2006.



Worldwide, Europe has the largest telecommunications market, measuring at $1 trillion, with the U.S. second at $923 billion and Asia/Pacific third at $715 billion. Overall, the international market grew 12.1 percent in 2006. Middle East/Africa was the fastest- growing region, expanding at 21.6 percent. By 2010, the global market is expected to reach $4.3 trillion in revenue.



"Consumers are thirsty for broadband, and this report shows carriers are rushing to meet the demand," said Grant Seiffert, TIA president. "Technologies like VoIP and broadband video, as well as new mobile data services, are sparking new growth in the telecommunications industry. As a result, carriers are offering more competitive all-in-one bundled packages, and consumers are seeing lower prices and more services."http://www.tiaonline.org

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Motorola's Ed Zander to Join Time Warner's Board

Time Warner has elected Edward Zander, Motorola's Chairman and CEO, to join its Board of Directors. Time Warner also elected Jeffrey L. Bewkes, its President and COO, to join the Board.
http://www.timewarner.com

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Analog Devices and Legend Silicon Open Design Lab in Shanghai

Analog Devices and Legend Silicon Corp., a leading supplier of silicon solutions for broadband wireless broadcasting, have opened a joint design laboratory to develop reference designs for China's emerging mobile TV market. The collaboration combines Legend's demodulator technology with ADI's low-power RF tuners.



The design lab, which is located in Shanghai, adjacent to the Fudan University campus, will provide complete front-end solutions, from the antenna through the tuner to the demodulator to the MPEG2 TS interface.



Target applications include portable media players, PDAs, laptop PCs, automotive displays and smart phones that can receive terrestrial digital TV broadcasts.

http://www.analog.com

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IBM and Partners Announces Transistor Design Advancement

IBM, working in partnership with AMD, Sony and Toshiba, announced its own advancement in "high-k metal gate" transistor technology. The material provides superior electrical properties compared to its existing designs, enhancing the transistor's function while also allowing the size of the transistor to be shrunk beyond limits being reached today.



"Until now, the chip industry was facing a major roadblock in terms of how far we could push current technology," said Dr. T.C. Chen, vice president of Science and Technology, IBM Research. "After more than ten years of effort, we now have a way forward. With chip technology so pervasive in our everyday lives, this work will benefit people in many ways."



IBM said it will able to apply the technology to products with chip circuits as small as 45 nanometers starting in 2008.

http://www.ibm.com

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Intel Announces High-k Breakthrough in Transistor Design

Intel announced a breakthrough that significantly reduces transistor leakage and increases performance in its 45nm process technology.



Described as one of the biggest advancements in fundamental transistor design in forty years, Intel said the use of new materials with "high-k" properties will enable hundreds of millions of transistors to be included in its next generation Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad and Xeon families of multi-core processors. The company also said it has five early-version products up and running -- the first of fifteen 45nm processor products planned from Intel.



Intel believes it has extended its lead of more than a year over the rest of the semiconductor industry with the first working 45nm processors of its next-generation 45nm family of products -- codenamed "Penryn."



"The implementation of high-k and metal materials marks the biggest change in transistor technology since the introduction of polysilicon gate MOS transistors in the late 1960s," said Intel Co-Founder Gordon Moore.



Intel said its breakthrough centers on the transistor gate dielectric -- an insulator underneath the gate that separates it from the channel where current flows. Silicon dioxide has been used to make the transistor gate dielectric for more than 40 years because of its manufacturability and ability to deliver continued transistor performance improvements as it has been made ever thinner.
Intel has successfully shrunk the silicon dioxide gate dielectric to as little as 1.2nm thick -- equal to five atomic layers -- on its previous 65nm process technology, but the continued shrinking has led to increased current leakage through the gate dielectric, resulting in wasted electric current and unnecessary heat.



To solve this critical issue, Intel replaced the silicon dioxide with a thicker hafnium-based high-k material in the gate dielectric, reducing leakage by more than 10 times compared to the silicon dioxide used for more than four decades. Because the high-k gate dielectric is not compatible with today's silicon gate electrode, the second part of Intel's 45nm transistor material recipe is the development of new metal gate materials. While the specific metals that Intel uses remains secret, the company will use a combination of different metal materials for the transistor gate electrodes.

http://www.intel.com

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MRV to Acquire Fiberxon and Take Luminent Public

MRV Communications announced plans to acquire Fiberxon, a supplier of transceivers for Metro, Access, and PON applications, for approximately $131 million in a combination of cash and stock.



Following the closing of the transaction, MRV intends on combining Fiberxon with Luminent, its wholly-owned subsidiary, which also supplies metro transceivers and transceivers for fiber-to-the- premise (FTTP) deployments.



MRV then plans an initial public offering (IPO) of shares in Luminent.



The proposed public offering by Luminent will not occur until after MRV completes the Fiberxon acquisition, Inc., which is expected during the first half of 2007. The company said the actual timing of the offering and whether Luminent undertakes it in 2007 or 2008 will depend on a number of factors, including the general condition of the securities markets.



Fiberxon is based in Santa Clara, California, and has product development and manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China. The company supplies a broad portfolio of metro, access, EPON and GPON transceivers.
According to Fiberxon, its unaudited 2006 revenues are expected to be in the range of $45 to $48 million.



Luminent, with facilities in Chatsworth, California and Hsinchu, Taiwan, has pioneered the field of triplexer transceivers for video, voice and data triple play service. The company is a leading supplier of optical transceivers for BPON FTTP deployments with over 1 million units shipped to date. Luminent has also shipped over 100,000 GPON transceivers globally in 2006.

http://www.luminentoic.com

http://www.fiberxon.com

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Ellacoya Rolls Out Carrier-class 20 Gbps Deep Packet Inspection

Ellacoya Networks unveiled its fourth-generation platform for wireline and wireless service providers -- a line-rate, deep packet inspection (DPI) system that operates at up to 20 Gbps speeds and is capable of supporting up to 500,000 active subscribers. Previous platforms from Ellacoya scaled to 4 Gbps and up to 64,000 subscribers.



The new FPGA-based Ellacoya e100 platform enables the network operator to identify and manage each packet of network traffic dynamically as it crosses the wire. Traffic can be inspected by subscriber, service type, time-of-day, and other criteria. Combined with Ellacoya's software, the system can provide granular reports on network usage, such as which subscribers are using the most bandwidth, which applications are consuming the greatest resources, or which subscribers are using applications such as Skype.



The platform also enables the provider to manage traffic dynamically, identity and prevent network threats, and provide the basis for quota management, differentiated service plans and quality-assured premium services (IPTV, VoIP, streaming video).



Ellacoya said its broadband service optimization solution allows service providers to classify and manage advanced applications, such as Bit Torrent and Skype. Ellacoya identifies applications through signatures in the data packet and through traffic-pattern analysis. The e100 adds more granular application detection to identify applications within applications; for example streaming video, VoIP and gaming can be detected within a Web (HTTP) download.



The new Ellacoya e100 platform is currently in trials and will be commercially available in March 2007.
http://www.ellacoya.com

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Nokia Expects Mobile Handset Shipments to Top 1 Billion in 2007

Nokia expects industry mobile device volumes in 2007 to grow by up to 10%, topping the 1 billion mark for the year. During Q4 2006, Nokia shipped a record 106 million mobile device, up 19% sequentially and 26% year on year. Overall industry volumes for the fourth quarter 2006 reached an estimated 290 million units, up 19% sequentially and year on year.



In converged devices, according to Nokia estimates, the total industry volume reached approximately 24.6 million units for the fourth quarter 2006, compared to an estimated 17.8 million units in the fourth quarter 2005. Nokia's own converged device volumes for the fourth quarter 2006 grew to 11.1 million units, compared to 9.3 million units in the fourth quarter 2005. Almost 6 million Nokia Nseries multimedia computers were shipped in the fourth quarter.



"Nokia was able to increase its share of the global device market significantly in 2006 to an estimated 36%, clearly solidifying our number one position in the industry," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia CEO.



Some highlights from the company's financial report:

• Nokia's fourth quarter 2006 net sales increased 13% to EUR 11.7 billion, compared to EUR 10.3 billion in the fourth quarter 2005. At constant currency, group net sales would have been up 12% year on year. Nokia's fourth quarter 2006 operating profit increased 11% to EUR 1.5 billion.



• The average selling price of Nokia's mobile devices declined in the fourth quarter 2006 to EUR 89, compared to EUR 93 in the third quarter 2006 and EUR 99 in the fourth quarter 2005. Sequentially, our ASP was impacted by a lower percentage of sales from our higher end products, specifically from our Multimedia business group, that more than offset the relatively stable ASPs in our entry-level product sales. The year on year decline in our ASP was driven primarily by the strong growth of the emerging markets, which have lower ASPs, and the growth of Nokia's market share in those markets, in addition to which certain higher-end products in our portfolio were not viewed as sufficiently competitive in various markets.

http://www.nokia.com

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AT&T Reports Strong Earnings, Merger Synergies, U-Verse Rollout Affirmed

Driven by record subscriber gains at Cingular and greater than expected cost synergies from its mergers, AT&T posted strong Q4 net income was $1.9 billion, up 17.1 percent versus $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2005, and reported earnings per diluted share were $0.50, up 8.7 percent from $0.46 in the year-earlier quarter.



"Our execution continues to be solid, we closed the year strong, and AT&T has excellent momentum heading into 2007," said Edward E. Whitacre Jr., AT&T chairman and chief executive officer.



In a conference call with investors, Whitacre said the U-verse rollout was moving ahead and the service is now available in 11 markets. The goal is to pass 8 million living units by year end. The company further believes that it is moving past early technical hiccups on the programming side and that the service is now competitive to cable offerings. More than 70% of U-verse subscribers are taking the higher-end video packages and more than 70% sign-up for the highest speed broadband service. The company did not disclose the current number of U-verse subscribers.



Whitacre said the current network architecture of using fiber-to-the-node and then copper for the last leg into customer homes is in fact delivering the bandwidth expected and that the company is not planning to adopt an FTTH architecture for its existing footprint. The company is still evaluating its strategy in the former BellSouth territory, where there is significant amount of fiber already deployed to neighborhoods.



Some highlights for the quarter:

• High-speed Internet connections -- including DSL, AT&T U-verse and satellite broadband -- increased by 383,000 in Q4 to 8.5 million, up 1.6 million, or 23.4 percent, over the past year.



• Broadband penetration of consumer primary lines reached 33.3 percent at the end of Q4, up from 25.5 percent a year earlier and 17.7 percent at the end of 2004. Video connections --
  AT&T | DISH Network satellite television and AT&T U-verse service -- increased by 49,000 to reach 635,000 in service. AT&T U-verse services are now launched in parts of 11 markets in Texas, California,
  Indiana and Connecticut.



• In 2006, AT&T's U-verse deployment reduced full-year earnings per share by $0.06. For the full year 2007, exclusive of any deployment in the former BellSouth region, AT&T's outlook anticipates additional dilution from its U-verse deployment of approximately $0.03 to $0.05 per share above 2006 levels, for a total impact of $0.09 to $0.11 per share.



• Regional business were revenues up 7.5 percent versus pro forma results for the year-earlier quarter.



• AT&T's fourth-quarter wireline revenues totaled $14.5 billion, up 22.3 percent from $11.8 billion reported in the fourth quarter of 2005.



• Enterprise revenues posted their smallest decline since the AT&T Corp. merger -- 3.7 percent versus pro forma results for the year-earlier quarter. This compares with declines of 5.1 percent in the third quarter of 2006 and 7.3 percent in the preceding quarter.



• Regional consumer revenues were up 0.1 percent versus pro forma results for the year-earlier quarter, reflecting a 259,000 increase in consumer connections over the past
  year to 33.2 million. Consumer connections combine retail access lines, high speed Internet and video connections. Traditional primary consumer lines declined by 227,000 in the fourth quarter, reflecting continued competition. This compares with declines of 242,000 in the third quarter of 2006 and 129,000 in the fourth quarter of 2005.



• For 2007, AT&T continues to expect to deliver double-digit percentage growth in earnings per share, adjusted to exclude merger-related costs and one-time items, in 2007 and 2008.



• In 2006, AT&T realized $1.1 billion in total synergies from the SBC/AT&T Corp. merger, versus its January 2006 outlook of $600 million to $800 million in synergies. AT&T now expects that total SBC/AT&T Corp. merger synergies will be at the high end of ranges provided in January of 2006 -- $2.0 billion to $2.4 billion in 2007 and $2.7 billion to $3.0 billion in 2008.



• Synergies from the BellSouth merger are now expected to be higher and realized earlier than in the company's prior projections. AT&T now expects total synergies to be $0.8 billion to $1.2 billion in 2007, up from its earlier expectation of $0.5 billion to $0.8 billion. In 2008, total synergies are now expected to reach $2.6 billion to $3.0 billion, compared with an earlier view of $1.9 billion to
  $2.4 billion. In 2009, total BellSouth merger synergies are expected to be in the $3.3 billion to $3.8 billion range, up from an earlier projection of $2.6 billion to $3.1 billion.



• AT&T expects that its capital expenditures will be in the mid teens as a percentage of total revenues in both 2007 and 2008.

http://www.att.com

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